1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recording system and an image recording method.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a technology for realizing high color by extending the color gamut of a printer, there are technologies below. The first conventional technology is a technology that utilizes special color inks such as red, green and blue inks in addition to basic colors that are cyan, magenta, yellow and black (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H06-233126(1994)). For example, by addition of a red ink for reproducing a red color having a higher chroma than a red color reproduced by overlapping a magenta ink and a yellow ink, it is possible to extend the color gamut of a red region. The second conventional technology is a technology that sets an optimal color material recording order in accordance with an input color signal (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-155181). For example, when recording is performed by overlapping dots of a yellow ink and dots of a cyan ink, recording performed by overlapping yellow and cyan in this order and recording performed by overlapping cyan and yellow in this order are different in color from each other. A color that can be reproduced only when yellow and cyan are overlapped in this order is recorded in order of yellow and cyan, and a color that can be reproduced only when cyan and yellow are overlapped in this order is recorded in order of cyan and yellow, and thus it is possible to extend a color gamut as compared with a case where recording is performed in any one of the recording orders.
However, the conventional technologies have the following problems. In the first conventional technology, it is necessary to use an ink having a high chroma. Furthermore, by the increase in the number of inks, the configuration of a printer becomes more complicated, with the result that its size is increased. In the second conventional technology, in the vicinity of colors where the recording order is changed, a gradation step difference is observed. Moreover, the shape of the color gamut is complicated, and color gamut compression processing causes the reversal of the gradation.